Twelve years ago, I asked the General Contractor at the Cell Genesis job for the MSDS on the epoxy floor coating being installed. The rep brought back a one page copy from what was supposed to be a multi page document, indicating that the product was benign. The page was from the MSDS for latex paint. The box holding the flooring epoxy components said "Do Not Open Product Unless You Are Wearing A Respirator Suitable To The Chemistry Of The Product." I can relate it to this NFL riff. There were dollars involved vs health and safety. I know what some people think takes precedence.http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/10/league-of-denial/

Wed....Hmmmm....

But sometimes, it’s been said, the greatest courage is displayed in standing before a crowd and affirming that two plus two equals four — now the main Republican challenge. Political morality is determined not simply, or even mostly, by intentions, but rather by results. There is a virtue in achieving what is achievable — in actually making things better than they are.

I'm an ex Catholic. And there ain't no ex quite as ex as an ex Catholic. And I can't even imagine what kinda load the enslaved and molested Catholics are carrying. But I check out what's happening every so often... and I find that I like the new Pope's modus operandi.

Boston College theology professor Thomas Groome said, "I think it will be a real test for conservative Catholics," he said. "They have always pointed the finger, quoting the pope for the last 35 years. Suddenly, will they stop quoting the pope? It'll be a good test of whether or not they're really Catholics."

"You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down." --Mary Pickford

I've read Cramer's site sine 1999 and it is amazing how many very significant investment pro's have passed through. I've followed the keepers. Jeff is one of them. How can you make any money without qualified information? http://oldprof.typepad.com/a_dash_of_in ... l#comments

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."--Sir Winston Churchill

Cheap and Easy Self-directed Investment Options

Congress provides US taxpayers with many different tax-advantaged options for retirement saving. Qualified self-directed employer sponsored retirement plans are some of those options. They included 401(k), 403(b) 457 plans, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, and others. There are trillions of dollars invested in these plans. This is a good thing for workers and for America.

What Congress didn’t provide was a short list of investments that plan participants could put their money into. That was a mistake. As a result, many plans are load up the a wide range of costly investment products that pay Wall Street billions of dollars in annual fees and, to make matters worse, kick-back some of those fees to the employers in the form of administrative services.

My radical idea is for Congress to create a very short list of three (3), government approved, low-cost, diversified index fund options for participants in qualified self-directed plans – and that is it. Every plan in the country were employees are able to save tax deferred would be required to offer these three funds, and only these three funds in their plan to keep their tax exempt status:

Conservative growth: 25% total global stock index fund + 75% total US bond index fund.Moderate growth: 50% total global stock index fund + 50% total US bond index fund.Aggressive growth: 75% total global stock index fund + 25% total US bond index fund.The default for all employees would be the moderate growth fund. They would then have the option to invest in Conservative Growth or Aggressive Growth. Fund providers would compete for then qualified plan business on cost only because the funds would be all the same. There would be no incentive to compete based on performance of their funds. This will drive investment costs down to only a few basis points, a level enjoyed by participants in the government’s own Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).

There would be no need for middle-men such consultants who earn fees by recommending investment products. It will also end the flow of cash from fund companies back to plan sponsors. Administrative costs would be paid fully by either the employer or employees. All costs would be fully disclosed. Finally, this idea will end most lawsuits against plan sponsors for impudent investment decisions.

The government created qualified self-directed employer sponsored plans with the thought of helping Americans save and investment for retirement. They did not do it so that Wall Street could get rich. Limiting all plans to these three extremely low-cost portfolios is a prudent move for employees and their beneficiaries, and it’s also prudent for employers who wish to have safe harbor from litigation due to bad investment decisions.

Rick Ferri

Somebody Should Do Something...

More food for thought:

Sunday Night

Here’s what President Barack Obama‘s statement on Lawrence Summers‘s decision to withdraw his name from consideration to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve would have looked like after 40 milligrams of Sodium thiopental:

“Earlier today, I spoke with Larry Summers and accepted his decision to withdraw his name from consideration for Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Larry was a critical contributor to the radical deregulation that was one of many causes of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. It was in no small part because of his lack of expertise, false wisdom, and inept leadership that the economy crashed and burned and even today is still failing to be to back to its full growth potential.......

"The salary of the chief executive of a large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself." -John Kenneth Galbraith

Syria War 401 news;

Volatility is gonna be up bigtime. The potential for things to go wrong is huge. Russia and Iran vs Saudi, Israel, France, US, Turkey. The actual arena of war is small and isolated by US standards. But it is in the mideast, there are oil powers involved, chemical weapons too, and it is like a barfight where there exists the possibility of the loser grabbing an oil lamp and screaming "The Guy Next To You Is A Child Molester!!!" and throwing the lamp into a mountain of bottles behind the bar. This could get messy.

That said, going into Labor Day is the slowest time of the year, markets get whipped around, This PROLLY gets dealt wit', and a month down the rad things look cool. That said, ya can take some off the table and get a little conservative, it wouldn't hurt much. But, things stay rocky for a coupla three weeks, then clear up, STAND BACK!!! We come into the end of the year, seasonality is in our favor, Wall Street DESPERATELY needs to run stocks up, and we could come back up like that garden rake you stepped on when you were a kid. Or we go to hell inna handbasket and we got bigger problems than the 401. I'm standing pat. Fer Now...

Stay Tooned....

Dare I Say It Out Loud? ................ Ya Know.....I Really Don't Care Much For Long Emotional Goodbyes........... SO....... ADIOS, MOTHERFUCKERS!! ... THIS IS IT!!!! .....I'M PULLING THE PIN!!!... I'M OUTAHERE!!!!!!! I'm Retiring As Of This Week. The Paperwork Is Inna Works. Now....About The Blog And Whom So Ever Read Or Might Wanna Continue To Read It... Hmmm.... Stay Tooned.

Saturday, August 10, 2013, 01:59 PM

One of the most difficult investing skills to master is being persistent and confident while not crossing the line to being stubborn and obstinate. It is a very fine line and you will never get it quite right now matter how hard you try. Reverend Shark

Hey! If Yer A Member Of 342 And Need Some Help With The 401, Get In Touch With Me.If You Are Using The Blog To Run Yer 401 Outa Another Local, And Would Like To See The COFG Continue, Lemme Know Through The "Contact Me" Link Above.If You Just Like Comics And Music, Lemme Know That Too.If All These Hits Onna My Blog Are Issues W/ Fat Fingers, And You Don't Give A Fuck.... Turn Around And Go Quietly, Nothing To See Here..... Move On....

Here's YTD.

Here's During The Bad Year...

Not A Bad Place To Close De Do'. Up 11% Plus In 8 Months... A Little Short Of 10% A Year Over The Last 9 Years.

Note:

I'm moving a substantial proportion of my money from my 401 to an account managed by a professional money manager in the near future. I will retain money in my 401 account and manage it as I have always done. I will be able to measure what my fees are getting me and roll the money back into the 401 should I decide to. But in the meantime, the distribution of funds among the investment options is mostly about easy tracking and transfer. I'll keep you posted on when that changes.

Tues

Stay Tooned...

I Do NOT Like What I See Inna Charts.... Been Lookin' At Some Bond Charts. Prolly Cover It At Some Point Below.....

Friday, July 5, 2013, 12:02 PM

It makes me cringe to have 'experts' tell us not to fear the Fed. You don't fear the Fed but you do fear a market that fears the Fed. If the rest of the world is selling because they are afraid, justified or not, you respect the price action and move out of the way.-- James “Reverend Shark” DePorre

A month or two ago I reduced stock exposure into risk. I reduced bond exposure into risk about 6 weeks ago. I've been re-establishing stock exposure into rising prices. Some of this I got pretty extreme about. It Appears To Be Working. Real Well. I Like The Numbers. So Far, So Good....

Here's The Chart Alluded To Inna Title...

This is a 10 year Treasury Note chart. Yields (pay out) have been dropping for the whole duration of the chart. If, in late '94, you'd bought a new 10 Year Note, you'd have gotton a yield of say, 80. By late 2002, the new 10 year yields were down to around 40. Your old note's US government rate was twice the yield of the new notes. That meant that not only was it throwing off interest payments at a fabulous rate, if you had to sell it, it yielded as highly as very risky bonds... with none of the risk. Much higher interest rate than the equivalent 2 year note, which is what ya got left onna original 10 year note. Now it looks like the run is starting to unwind. Every bond you hold in yer bond fund will prolly yield less or equal to one you can buy next month or next year. Want ta get out of the bonds you hold, like to get into something else that's doin' better or pay the groceries? That means dropping the price you get to where it looks like a value to somebody who will get a better deal the longer they wait. Lookit the first chart.The best way to invest in bonds is the buy them outright. Which I did inna 80's. I bought bonds paying 12% double tax free. Every year bond interest paid by new bonds dropped and while my bonds became worth less because they got one year closer to being called, they became worth more because they paid better than newer bonds. Pretty cool. I held them until they were called and got all the interest and more than my money back. (I bought them at a discount). When you invest in a bond fund, you go in with all the other investors. If they bail wholesale,the fund sells inventory into a falling market and you lose despite holding firm.

That's why I'm inna stable value. For now... 'Course I'm just an old broke down pipefitter and this is just only what I'm doin' wit my own money. Someone smart 'll tell ya something else. YMMV.

Another "V" shaped recovery. Bounce off the 50 day ma, chatter along it, power dive through it, flush out the cautious and profit takers, drop through another level of resistance, close below it for almost a week, suck in the bears, AND TURN AROUND AND GO ALMOST UP FOR 11 DAYS OUT OF TWELVE. Then to add insult to injury, gap open a buncha days and hold that level all day, so that all the gains come overnight, so they tell you nothing about the health of the market.

The best way to make money in this market is to be insanely aggressive, mostly oblivious of risk, too unsophisticated to realize that markets devour the unsophisticated, and too lazy to take profits on the way up. Sometimes, fate and the markets play into my strengths.

Stay Tooned

"When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain."

The purpose of fixed income in a portfolio is for ballast. It is not there to increase returns, it is there to reduce risk, hence you should keep the fixed income portion of a portfolio relatively short term, high quality, and currency hedged (if using international fixed income).-- David E. Hultstrom

Not A Good Week...Looks Worse If Ya Go Back To Da Start O Da Month...

Lightening Up On Stocks Worked Out OK. Didn't Lose Much. Now I Gotta See Which Way Monday Goes.... Don't Let This Week's Heading Fool Ya. I Paid My Attention During The Last Two Weeks Ratcheting Down Risk... The Balanced Pooled Fund Is My Benchmark. The Work I've Done At Getting A Few Percent Here And There, And Big Numbers Like This Week, Becomes A Serious Advantage The Closer I Get To Pulling The Pin...Especially When It Gets So Crazy That Bonds Act Like Stocks. A Brand New Journeyman W/ $15K Inna 401 Sees 5% As Chump Change. A 40 Year Guys Sees It As A Year's Contribution... I'm Big Time Inna Stable Value. Outta Bonds. Return Free Risk? Thank You, But No Thanks....

If it goes really bad, there's still a lot to salvage. If it turns right back up... Drive On!

I enjoyed this speech, but Bernanke's comment that "careful economic analysis ... can help kill ideas that are completely logically inconsistent or wildly at variance with the data" is at odds with the sequestration budget cuts, "debt ceiling" nonsense, expansionary austerity, and more. I wish data and careful analysis could actually kill bad ideas, but I'm not sure what Paul Ryan would do with his life.Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/#BMiAPZdjkGJgeRBy.99

Stay Tooned...

Memorial Day.... 'Cuz There Is So Damn Much Built On The Sacrifice Of Others, That As Important As It Is To Remember Those Who Are Gone, It Is Even More Important To Do Something For Those Who Are Still Here And Who We Can Still Help.

Saturday, May 25, 2013, 03:04 PM

"The market is not a sofa, it is not a place to get comfortable." Jim Cramer

Stay Tooned...

Rock 'n Roll. From 5% Of The Music Market(Top 40/Pop), To The Very First Album Rock Show (An Hour A Day On A Foreign Language Station), To A Major Socio/Political Force, To Elevator Music, To Something Receding In The Rear View Mirror....

Saturday, May 18, 2013, 01:21 PM

"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."-- John Kenneth Galbraith

Stay Tooned....

The one great certainty about the market is that things will always change. When we lose sight of that fact and dig in our heels on a particular viewpoint or thesis, it can create tremendous stress as we deal with an environment that may not appreciate our great insight.Reverend Shark

It was way early inna 70's and my squeeze and I were in Santa Cruz checking out the U. We were walking the Boardwalk and just for S&G'sI bought a Marvel Captain America comic from the magazine rack, my first comic book in a decade and my first Marvel comic ever. I was blown away by the art. I was used to newspaper comic's little linear squares and here was something completely different. At that time in my life, I inhaled science fiction and fantasy at a prodigious rate, and the disconnect between the vistas in my imagination and the reality of then current film and TV was huge. Oh, you had yer Harryhausen and yer 2001, but the first was a few minutes of a two hour movie, and the second was an outlier. On TV, ya had yer Star Trek silver painted salt shaker medical tricorder and yer radio shack experimenter box with one switch and three lights, all shot inna studio with all the sweep and grandeur of a large closet.

The one comic book purchase led to a decade long run collecting comics and comix driven primarily by the art. One exception to that, was that I collected Iron Man books. I saw a huge potential to the title, but it was hardly ever even close to realized. The book seemed to get the second string if not the third string writers and artists. It drove me up the wall. Check out these covers, where Iron Man is in a unitard with lines on the boots, trunks and gloves, indicating segments. Not armor, not anything to Marvel over... A metallic suit with all the opportunities that reflections and detail allowed.... Not there. Nothing.

The one exception to this was when IM crossed over to a book with a first line artist in place. There he got a better treatment. Check out this page from an Avengers book, as drawn by Barry Smith, an incredible artist. Even in a book that starred as many as a dozen main characters, where the artist had to spread himself thin over all dozen, IM got a better treatment than in his own mag. There are pages to that book that I can't access that are even better...

IIRC, someone wrote to Marvel about this time asking about this issue, prolly inna Avengers book and over this story, and the letter caught my eye. The explanation was simple. IM was one of Marvel's better selling books, regardless of the resources allocated and almost independent of the quality. Why put a quality artist on it if it made no difference? Put them on another book where they would make a difference. IM always sold well. Not only that, but the book generated one of the largest monthly piles of letters and surprisingly, included one of the largest proportions of letters from females. There was clearly something at work beyond the book itself.

Finally 40 years later, IM is getting it's due on the big screen. Serious writing, serious graphics, an inspired actor, it all came together. I am not surprised. There was/is something beyond a comic book. It's nice to see.

Incidentally, Marvel put the word out that they wanted nothing to do with Downey; too much prison time, bad rap for behavior on set, too many drug busts. He INSISTED on a screen test. This looks to be part of it...

Two Things... Lookin' Like Around 9% Annual Return Over Around 9 Years. Not Half Shabby Being That It Includes 2008.An'... I'm Looking At Investment Returns Being 75% Of Total Returns For The First Three Months Of 2013. Things Are Good Right Now And I Won't Be Able To Do That Kinda Return When Things Go South... But It Augurs Well For When I Retire (Lemme Check My Watch). I've Got Critical Mass And I'll Be Able To Maintain/Grow My Account Even When I'm Not Working...

Stay Tooned.

Contrast. A Beautiful Sunny Saturday And Two Cars Wadded Up In Front Of My House, Neither Is Mine. Cypus Circling The Drain And Plywood Shortages In The US As We Scrape The Bottom Of The Financial Crisis On The Way To Starting Back Up. Be Thankful For Whatcha Got And Work To Keep It.

Saturday, March 23, 2013, 03:28 PM

"Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces."– Sigmund Freud

Still Balls To The Wall. Nothing Lasts Forever, But Opportunities Need To Be Taken Advantage Of. And An Eye Needs To Be Kept On the Door....

Stay Tooned...

Trust That It All Works Out. You Just Gotta Mostly Do The Right Things Mostly At The Right Time.

Saturday, March 16, 2013, 04:02 PM

"Economic history is a never-ending series of episodes based on falsehoods and lies, not truths. It represents the path to big money. The object is to recognize the trend whose premise is false, ride that trend and step off before it is discredited." -- George Soros